September 09, 2007

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.

The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.

Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

"The bottom line is that many people do not feel comfortable sending their kids to a school with a lot of African American students," says Rosenberg, who has been at Starr King for 12 years, four as principal. "It's a crying shame. It's terrible. But it is a sad and obvious truth in our schools. And no one wants to touch it."

Actually, that's not true. San Francisco school board President Mark Sanchez, who is a teacher, has decided to speak up. He read Johnson's report and is attempting to use it as a way of starting a dialogue about something "our society doesn't want to talk about."

"We need to bring this out on the table and have a discussion," says Sanchez. "Nobody is going to come out and say they didn't choose a school because it had too many black kids. But they don't have to."

Sanchez isn't just interested in this as a moral issue. There's a practical matter, too. With African American families leaving San Francisco, schools are losing black students. But as Sanchez says, when students leave those predominantly black schools, "nobody is willing to fill those seats." The result is that schools in minority neighborhoods are continually threatened with closure because they are losing enrollment.

September 08, 2007

They were being pulled over. "This stuff comes with the territory," explained Roger. "Duke and I didn't feel the least bit apprehensive; pay the cop for whatever bullshit reason he comes up with and move on. Good surf awaited." The three surfers knew the drill; this area is notorious for the $40 Mexican cop shakedown. Duke, who was driving the Honda Ridgline and leading the two-truck caravan handed all his cash to Roger--except for $40 to pay-off the cop.

"Open the door, " the cop said to Roger as he rolled down the passenger window. A handgun pointed at Roger's eyes. "Open the f-ing door," the cop said a second time as he slammed the gun against Roger's right temple, reached in and pulled the door open.

As this unfolded, Walt, in the truck behind them and doing his duty as back driver in the caravan, pulled over behind Duke's Honda Ridgeline and watched in the still, dusky light. 'It immediately looked strange to me," explained Walt. "The cops came out of their truck with their guns drawn. My first thought is that they were looking for drugs. I thought this wasn't going to be a situation where we get out of it with a bribe."

Brian Jarrell was heading to his kitchen for a middle-of-the-night glass of water Monday when he noticed a chemical odor seeping from his 9-year-old son's room. The Dundalk father checked on the boy and a younger daughter also sleeping in the room.

And then he saw a figure hiding behind the door of an armoire.

The man fled, but Jarrell chased him down. Later, he found a rag doused in a chemical, where his son had been sleeping. . .